This cake is not for the faint hearted. Seriously, it’s indulgent, rich and chocolatey. It’s a very good treat and it’s very easy to bake!
I was lucky enough to be invited to the Cake and Bake show with the Gin Fuelled Bluestocking, I was even luckier to receive a freebies bag and I’m slowly working my way through the goodies. This recipe makes use of two ingredients, the muscovado sugar and the malt flours from Flour Bin. I’ve used the light malt flour in this recipe but also added Ovaltine to give it extra oomph. This cake will not taste too malty but it lightens the cake and it adds a lovely flavour.
For the cake:
262g or 4 eggs measured
230g Self Raising flour
20g Cocoa
20g Light malt flour
20g Chocolate Ovaltine
269g Baking margarine
250g Light muscovado sugar
19g Caster sugar
Dash of milk
2 tsp Baking powder
For the buttercream
275g of icing sugar
30g cocoa
100g butter or baking margarine
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
This really could not be easier. Measure 4 eggs on electric scales and you’ll want the same quantities of sugars, flours and fat. Because we’re using different flours we still have to make sure that the overall quantities of flour match the same quantities of egg, sugar and fat. We want to substitute approx 20g of flour with cocoa, 20g with Ovaltine and 20g with malt flour, because of the large quantities of extra ‘flours’ we’re adding an extra tsp of raising agent.
Also, because we’re being rather indulgent with the muscovado sugar, I’ve added about 20g of caster- in an attempt to lighten it a bit so it’s not too rich.
When you’ve measured all your stuff out, throw it all in a bowl, don’t worry, the cake is light and airy- we’re not losing the air by doing it like this. Trust me, pop it all into a bowl, like this:
Using an electric whisk, mix it all together until it’s just combined, don’t over beat it or the gluten will make the sponge too firm and not light and springy.
When it’s combined measure out equal -ish quantites into prepared cake tins.
Then pop into a pre-heated oven at 180 (fan off) or 160 fan oven for 35 minutes.
When it comes out of the oven, start making the buttercream filling but you need to make sure you only ice the cake when the sponge is cold. If it’s got any warmth in it the consistency of the icing will change.
Chocoholic added extra
When the cake is iced and looking splendid you might want to add an even more indulgent layer, basically, this part is only for the true chocoholics, it’s easy- don’t worry – but it’s so rich some people prefer the cake without (these people however are no longer my friends).
For the indulgent layer
3 tbsp Golden Syrup
20g cocoa
25ml of water
25g butter
Put all these ingredients into a pan and whisk viciously on a medium heat until combined, it will thicken slightly, allow to cool and then pour on the cake. You might want to let it set then add more if you want a thicker layer. You can continue to heat to loosen up if you do add more than one layer.
When you’ve finished, you might want to serve this sitting down, in a darkened room, away from other people so you can appreciate it and make lots of special noises. But this is only a serving suggestion…